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Then there’s the offer – another piece many marketers have a hard time getting right.

“An offer is a reason to respond – the ‘carrot’ that gets the reader to take action.”

When deciding on your offer, remember to “Sell the Offer, not the Product”. Howard goes on to say, “no matter how enticing your product or service sounds, you won’t generate leads unless people want what you’re offering”. I totally agree.

Choosing the right offer – here comes the good stuff…

First, you must decide what the primary objective is for your campaign. Is it to:

Build awareness

Build your in-house list

Generate sales opportunities

Drive prospects to a meeting immediately

For each of these, you’re offer would be different. On page 4 of the whitepaper, check out Fig 1. It is a great visual of different offers and what outcomes to expect with each. The basic idea is the more you ask of someone, the more qualified they will be. Doing a raffle for an iPod will drive responders but probably not the quality your sales team is looking for.

The remainder of the whitepaper goes on in detail about the pros and cons of different offers like free trials, webinars, whitepapers, surveys and sweepstakes. If you haven’t already read this one, you want to. “Select your offer carefully. The choice between one offer and the next will have a dramatic effect on your response rate and the quality of the leads you generate.

About the Author Howard J. Sewell is president and founder of Connect Direct. Prior to starting the company in 1990, he served as a marketing manager for software giant Oracle Corporation. Howard is a frequent speaker on direct marketing and regular contributor to print publications and online forums on topics that include lead generation, e-mail marketing, channel development and event promotion. He writes “Direct Connections,” a leading blog on best practices and strategies for B2B direct marketing.

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